Prophetic medicine

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The Prophetic Medicine ( Arabic الطب النبوي, DMG aṭ-ṭibb an-nabawī ) is an Islamic medicine and health teaching that is essentially based on hadiths , i.e. traditions of the Prophet Mohammed († 632). A good dozen Arabic and Persian works dealing with prophetic medicine are known from the 10th to 18th centuries. Most of the authors are Muslim religious scholars, traditionarians and jurists. Few of them have practiced as doctors themselves.

history

Hadiths on hygienic and medical questions form the historical starting point of the writings on prophetic medicine. In the 9th century, hadith scholars such as Ibn Abī Schaiba (d. 849) and al-Buchari (st. 870) compiled such hadiths in their own chapters of their hadith collections for the first time. These chapters are each entitled Kitāb aṭ-Ṭibb ("Book of Medicine"). At the head of the chapter in al-Buchārī, which comprises a total of 56 sections, is the prophetic word , according to which God has not revealed any disease without at the same time sending down a cure for it ( mā anzala Llāhu dā anzan illā anzala la-hū šifāʾan ). This prophetic word forms, so to speak, the motto of prophetic medicine, because this was primarily aimed at overcoming the skepticism of pious Muslim circles against medical treatment.

Around the middle of the 10th century, Muslim religious scholars set about extracting the traditions of medical content from the large collections of hadiths and compiling them in separate writings under the title "The Medicine of the Prophet" (Ṭibb an-nabī) . The oldest known script of this type comes from Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn as-Sunnī (d. 974). It was considerably expanded a few decades later by Abū Nuʿaim al-Isfahānī (st. 1038). While Ibn as-Sunnī mentions just three hadiths on each topic, Abū Nuʿaim lists around forty traditions. These early texts represent pure collections of hadiths: the traditions are thematically arranged in them, but strung together without comment.

In the early 14th century, two students of Ibn Taimīya , Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (st. 1348) and Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya (st. 1350), wrote independent works on prophetic medicine. The book of adh-Dhahabī is divided into three parts: 1.) Generalia of medicine, comprising theory and practice, 2.) Food and medicines, 3.) Treatment of diseases. In the introduction, adh-Dhahabī refers to the six canonical collections of hadiths and explains which abbreviations he uses for them in his work. Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya's work, which actually forms the fourth part of his multi-volume work Zād al-maʿād fī hady ḫair al-ʿibād ("The travel provisions for the hereafter about the guidance of the best of men") is much more detailed with 277 sections . Most of these passages are headed with titles such as “The guidance of the Prophet - God bless him and give him salvation - regarding [...]” ( Hudā n-nabī ṣallā Lllāhu ʿalai-hi wa-sallam fī [...] ). At the end of the 15th century Jalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūtī (d. 1505) finally wrote his comprehensive work “The Right Method and the Fresh Source for Prophetic Medicine” ( al-Manhaǧ as-sawī wa-l-manhal ar-rawī fī ṭ-ṭibb an-nabawī ).

References to prophetic medicine can also be found in many Persian medical works such as the anatomical treatise Tašrīḥ-i Manṣūrī by Mansūr ibn Ilyās , written in 1386 . In the early 18th century, Akbar Arzānī (d. Approx. 1721), an Indian Sufi and doctor, created a Persian adaptation of as-Suyūtī's work with the title Talḫīṣ-i ṭibb-i nabawī ("Epitome of Prophetic Medicine") at the age of 15 Chapters, which, however, differs considerably from the basic work. Another particularly interesting text is the work from the second half of the 18th century entitled Muʿālaǧat-i Nabawī (“Prophetic Healing”), in which the author, an Indian scholar named Ghulām Imām, used prophetic medicine with Ayurvedic teachings tried to harmonize.

Ibn Chaldūn took a critical stance towards “prophetic medicine” . In his famous Muqaddima , he stated that this form of medicine was of Bedouin origin and could not lay claim to any religious obligation, as it was not part of the revelation. He justified this with the fact that the prophet had been sent by God to teach people the provisions of religious law, but not to teach them about medicine. Although he conceded that the believers could derive spiritual benefit ( baraka ) from the “medicine of the prophet”, this had nothing to do with humoral medicine ( aṭ-ṭibb al-mīzāǧī ), but only with the effects of faith.

Remedies and methods of prophetic medicine

Most works on prophetic medicine contain an alphabetically ordered section in which the various foods and remedies are listed with their respective benefits. For example, drinking camel milk and camel urine is recommended as a remedy for dropsy . Honey occupies a particularly prominent position among the prophetic remedies . Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya explains that drinking a mixture of honey and cold water is one of the best ways of maintaining health.

Cupping ( ḥiǧāma ) is one of the methods of prophetic medicine .

In addition, various incantations ( ruqā , sing. Ruqya ) handed down by Mohammed , which are supposed to help against diseases, are listed. Most of these incantations contain certain Quranic verses and suras such as the Fātiha and the two suras of seeking refuge . The idea of ​​the therapeutic effect of the Koran is based on the Koran itself, in which it says: "We send down from the Koran what healing ( šifāʾ ) and mercy ( raḥma ) is for the believers" (Sura 17:82). Such incantations with Koranic components are recommended against diseases and fever, to avert the negative consequences of the Evil Eye and also against jinn , which can cause states of possession.

Remarkably, adh-Dhahabī also recommends a prayer against urinary retention in his work, which has striking similarities with the Our Father . It reads: “Our Lord who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your command is in heaven as it is on earth. As your mercy is in heaven, let it be on earth and forgive us our sins and transgressions, for you are the Lord of the righteous. "

Much of the material of adh-Dhahabīs can also be found in a modified form in Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya, but he relies even more on methods such as cupping and cauterization as well as magical means such as talismans .

The relationship to Greek-Arabic medicine

Although it is often emphasized that prophetic medicine stands in opposition to Arabic scientific medicine, which is based on the knowledge of ancient Greek medicine , this opposition is less pronounced than it appears at first glance, as the early texts on prophetic medicine are based in their structure on contemporary manuals of Greek-Arabic medicine . In addition, the later authors of works on prophetic medicine often cite ancient authorities such as Hippocrates , Plato , Aristotle , Pedanios Dioscurides and Galenus, as well as Arab doctors such as Rhazes , Avicenna , Ibn al-Baitār and ʿAbd al-Latīf al-Baghdādī . In many places the authors of works on prophetic medicine rationalize the health advice handed down as hadith with the help of the Greek-Arabic humoral pathology . This tendency towards parallelization between religious and profane medical statements is particularly evident in the work of as-Suyūtīs, which throughout his work quotes the well-known epitome of Ibn an-Nafīs to Avicenna's Canon . Amulets and magic play no role at all for him.

The closeness to Greco-Arabic medicine is finally shown in the fact that the doctrine of the seven natural things ( umūr ṭabīʿīya / res naturales ) and the six non-natural things ( umūr laisat bi-ṭabīʿīya / res non naturales ), which come from the Galenic Medicine is firmly integrated into the works of prophetic medicine. The seven natural things include 1. the four elements ( arkān ), 2. the four juices ( aḫlāṭ ), 3. the nine temperaments ( amziǧa ), 4. the three main organs ( aʿḍāʾ ) liver, heart and brain, 5. the inherent powers ( quwā ), 6. pneumata ( arwāḥ ) and 7. physiological functions ( afʿāl ). The six non-natural things are 1. air, 2. food and drink, 3. movement and rest, 4. sleeping and waking, 5. body excretions and 6. emotions. The importance of non-natural things lies in the fact that through their regulation man can maintain the balance of juices and qualities and accordingly maintain his health. This also includes balanced sexual activity. All of these principles are dealt with, for example, in adh-Dhahabi in the first chapter. In his presentation of the material he is probably based on the structure in the Masāʾil of Hunain ibn Ishāq . Remarkably, Adh-Dhahabī's work also includes a section on music therapy at the end .

In general, the authors of works on prophetic medicine are based on Jewish and Greek medicine , but they also use this system to express the special position of the prophet Mohammed among the creatures. For example, adh-Dhahabī makes it clear that eukrasia, i.e. H. the correct, balanced ratio of the juices to each other (Arabic iʿtidāl al-īzāǧ ), which is responsible for health, is best given in him:

“The most balanced temperament among living beings is possessed by man, the most balanced temperament among men is possessed by the believers, the most balanced temperament among the believers are possessed by the prophets, the most balanced temperament among the prophets are possessed by the messengers of God, the most balanced temperament among the ambassadors by the determined ( ūlū l-ʿazm , ie Noah , Abraham , Moses , Jesus , Mohammed), and our Lord Mohammed has the most balanced temperament among the determined. "

- Aḏ-Ḏahabī: aṭ-Ṭibb an-nabawī 21f, transl. Ullmann 187.

The Islamic character of the works on prophetic medicine can be seen in various other points, for example in the fact that they prohibit food and medicines made from substances that are considered impure, and that the role of God as the ultimate cause of health and disease is emphasized, and that the galenic theory of the creation of man from four elements (fire, water, earth and air) is rejected with the argument that according to Islamic teaching only Satan is created from fire, whereas man is created from earth.

A peculiarity of Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawzīya's work is the division of diseases into two classes at the beginning: 1.) "Disease of the heart" ( maraḍ al-qalb ) and 2.) "Disease of the body" ( maraḍ al-badan ). According to him, the sickness of the heart is brought about either by doubt ( šakk ) or by lust ( šahwa ). He bases this view on various verses of the Koran which are spoken of by people whose "hearts are sick" (for example, Sura 2:10; 24:50; 74:31).

literature

Arabic works on prophetic medicine

Secondary literature

  • Rainer Brömer: Use and Use of Islamic Medical History. In: Mamoun Fansa , Karen Aydin (Ed.): Ex oriente lux? Paths to Modern Science. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition [...] in the Augusteum Oldenburg. Oldenburg 2009 (= series of publications by the State Museum for Nature and Man. Volume 70), pp. 202–211.
  • Julia Bummel: Procreation and prenatal development of humans according to writings of medieval Muslim religious scholars on the "medicine of the prophet". Hamburg 1999. Available online at: http://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/1999/244/pdf/Dissertation_Julia_Bummel.pdf
  • Ghada Karmi: Al-Tibb al-nabawi: The Prophet's medicine in Richard Tapper, Keith McLachlan (ed.): Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia London 2003. pp. 32-39.
  • Andrew J. Newman: 'Tashrih-e Mansuri': Human Anatomy Between the Galenic and Prophetic Medical Traditions , in Z. Vesel, et al. (ed.): La Science dans le Monde Iranien à l'époque islamique . Tehran: Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran 1998. pp. 253–71.
  • Irmeli Perho: The Prophet's Medicine. A creation of the Muslim Traditionalist Scholars. Helsinki 1995.
  • Peter E. Porman and Emilie Savage-Smith: Medieval Islamic Medicine . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2007. pp. 71-75.
  • Ömer Recep: The prophetic medicine in Ibn as-Sunnī and Abū Nu'aim: with special consideration of the chapters on headache, eye, nose, dental diseases and hemorrhoids. Marburg, Univ., Diss., 1969.
  • Fabrizio Speziale: Soufisme, religion et médicine en Islam india . Paris 2010. pp. 193-204.
  • Manfred Ullmann: Medicine in Islam . Leiden / Cologne: EJ Brill 1970. pp. 185-190.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Bummel 19f.
  2. ↑ See Bummel 22.
  3. ↑ See Bummel 20.
  4. ↑ See Bummel 20f after Recep 20.
  5. ↑ See Bummel 21.
  6. ↑ See the summary in Dietrich Brandenburg: Die Ärzte des Propheten. Islam and Medicine . Berlin: edition q 1992. p. 30 based on the translation by Elgood.
  7. ↑ See adh-Dhahabī 19, Bummel 40.
  8. ↑ See Karmi 37.
  9. ↑ See Speziale 195 and Newman.
  10. ↑ See Speziale 203f.
  11. ↑ See Speziale 197.
  12. ↑ Cf. Ibn Chaldūn: Muqaddima . Translated from Rosenthal III 150 and Ullmann 185.
  13. ↑ See Bummel 47.
  14. ↑ See Karmi 37.
  15. ↑ Cf. aṭ-Ṭibb an-nabawī 174. Engl. Transl. 285.
  16. ↑ See Speziale 200.
  17. ↑ See Speziale 200f.
  18. ↑ See adh-Dhahabī 274-278 and Karmi 37.
  19. ↑ See Speziale 200f.
  20. ↑ Quotation from Felix Klein-Franke: Lectures on Medicine in Islam . Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner 1982. p. 23f. The original text can be found at adh-Dhahabī 286.
  21. ↑ See Porman / Savage-Smith 73.
  22. ↑ See Ullmann 185 and Porman / Savage-Smith 71f.
  23. ↑ See Bummel 23.
  24. ↑ See Porman / Savage-Smith 73, Klein-Franke 8.
  25. ↑ See Karmi 37.
  26. ↑ See Bummel 44.
  27. ↑ See Porman / Savage-Smith 74.
  28. ↑ See Bummel 114 and W. Schmitt: Art. "Res naturales" in Lexikon des Mittelalters Vol. VII, p. 750b.
  29. ↑ Cf. Bummel 115–121 and W. Schmitt: Art. “Res non naturales” in Lexikon des Mittelalters Vol. VII, pp. 751a-751b.
  30. ↑ See Bummel 113.
  31. ↑ See adh-Dhahabī 312–314.
  32. ↑ See Bummel 23f.
  33. ↑ See Bummel 39.
  34. ↑ Cf. Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya 15f and Speziale 197.
  35. ↑ Cf. Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya 1–5 and Speziale 199.
  36. ↑ See also Carl Brockelmann : History of Arabic literature . Vol. 1. 2. Ed. Leiden: EJBrill 1943. S. 445f.
  37. ↑ See Porman / Savage-Smith 79, Perho 36–40 and Bummel 41–45.